Do you think Satan is out to get Billy Ray? Is it Miley’s fault, or “Achey Breaky Heart”?
If someone you knew was to appear on several episodes of the Disney sitcom “Sunny With a Chance”, would they be completely doomed beyond belief with bong-rips on YouTube and pole-dancing at the Teen Choice Awards and the Inferno and atheism coming their way?
“Somewhere along this journey,” he says, “both mine and Miley’s faith has been shaken. That saddens me the most.” When they first came to Hollywood for Hannah Montana, the two of them would drive down the freeway together to the studio each morning, and every day Miley would point out the sign that said
ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY
ATHEISTS UNITED
Just before moving out to Los Angeles, the whole family had been baptized together by their pastor at the People’s Church in Franklin, Tennessee. “It was Tish’s idea,” he remembers. “She said, ‘We’re going to be under attack, and we have to be strong in our faith and we’re all going to be baptized…’” And there, driving to work each day in the City of Angels, was this sign. “A physical sign. It could have easily said ‘You will now be attacked by Satan.’ ‘Entering this industry, you are now on the highway to darkness…’”
Do you really see it in such clearly spiritual terms—that your family was under attack by Satan?
“I think we are right now. No doubt. There’s no doubt about it.”
And why is that happening?
“It’s the way it is. There has always been a battle between good and evil. Always will be. You think, ‘This is a chance to make family entertainment, bring families together…’ and look what it’s turned into.”
Hannah Montana probably has brought a lot of families together—just not one…
“Yeah. I know. I know. I know.”
And do you see the show as a big part of what has made things not work in your family?
“Oh, it’s huge—it destroyed my family. I’ll tell you right now—the damn show destroyed my family. And I sit there and go, ‘Yeah, you know what? Some gave all.’ It is my motto, and guess what? I have to eat that one. I some-gave-all’d it all right. I some-gave-all’d it while everybody else was going to the bank. It’s all sad.”
Do you wish Hannah Montana had never happened?
“I hate to say it, but yes, I do. Yeah. I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.”
That’s a pretty loud “Welp”.
